Blog Posting #2....... On Research (Amy Axelrod)

I'll begin this entry with a confession. I am an obsessive researcher.

When I was an undergraduate, I took a course on Dostoevsky. One assignment was to write a term paper connecting the events of the author's life with his work. I was off and running, uncovering every possible reference in existence from a card catalogue. My paper was practically the size of the Boston phone directory, upon which the professor wrote, "I look forward to your next opus." I patted myself on the back. "Details, that's what earned me that A+," I thought.

It was the same story in graduate school. While researching my Master's thesis in the stacks of Butler Library on the Columbia campus, I was like a fearless explorer making my way through unchartered territory. No twist or turn would be avoided, no stone left uncovered until I was satisfied that I had exhausted every possible source or reference in existence. Not until then would I sit at my manual Smith Corona typewriter and pound away at the keys. This was my same approach while co-authoring the "The Bullet Catch."

The Bullet Catch: Murder by Misadventure is an historical novel. The action takes place in 1917 NYC. The four main characters who inhabit our story are Leo, an orphan and a thief; Signor Franco Barzini, a washed-up magician who takes Leo on as an apprentice; Harry Houdini, The King of Handcuffs; The Mysterious Chung Ling Soo, a magician more skilled in the art of legerdemain than Houdini or any other famous performer of the time.

I began with Leo. So many questions. What were the conditions like at orphanages during this time? How long did boys stay in an orphanage before they were apprenticed to a trade or kicked out to the street? How did people dress in 1917? It wasn't enough to know that boys wore caps, I had to know what style of cap and from what material was it made. When we sketched out a scene where Leo encounters a newsie hawking a paper, I had to know everything about the kids who slept on the sidewalks awaiting the pre-dawn deliveries of the morning newspaper editions. I needed to see photographs from the archives of the New York Public Library. I imagined these kids shouting out the headlines of rival newspapers from opposing street corners. What was worse was that I needed to get a feel for the vernacular of the times, and would use it in my emails to David as well as in our phone conversations. Surely you can imagine my son's reaction!

Hundreds of internet pages were bookmarked and printed. Train routes, subway lines, restaurant menus, world newspaper articles matching our timeline, archival photographs of the neighborhoods our characters inhabited. My persistence in uncovering layer upon layer paid out when it came to understanding the magicians of this era, in particular, Harry Houdini and Chung Ling Soo. I came across an internet reference for The Harry Ransom Center at the University of Texas, Austin. The Ransom Center is an archive specializing in collections. Two of their holdings were Harry Houdini's scrapbooks and another on the magicians of the era. I hit the jackpot. David's older brother was a graduate student at UT, Austin and my husband and I traveled back and forth to Austin frequently. The Ransom Center would be mine!

I had to register at the security desk, create an account, place my purse and jacket in a locker, remove my laptop and camera bag from their cases for inspection and then watch a video on how to properly handle documents. I signed a release and got to work. I began with the Houdini collection, and although I'd read several biographies on Houdini, and knew that he could be quite nasty, I didn't get the full colorization of his personality until I read his correspondence.

Harry Houdini was a long-time friend of William Ellsworth Robinson, AKA The Mysterious Chung Ling Soo. Robinson began his career in magic as a master designer and engineer of magic apparatus. He worked for the Great Hermann, a magician whose signature illusion was The Bullet Catch, which would also become Soo/Robinson's signature illusion. In spite of his brilliance, William Robinson had a terrible stage presence and was often booed off stage when he began his banter. The reason being that he mumbled, feeling ashamed of his discolored and mottled teeth. But when he left NYC for England, he re-invented himself as a Chinese conjurer who spoke no English. Problem solved. Costumed and disguised with a wig and greasepaint, a super-star was born.

I found many letters between the two men at The Ransom Center. They addressed each other cordially and typically gossiped about other magicians. But an example of Houdini's enormous ego, quick temper and maybe a bit of paranoia thrown in, can be seen in a registered letter (probably a telegram) dated June 15, 1914. Houdini heard rumors swirling around the world of magic that Robinson was going to include a trick in his act for which Houdini claimed sole ownership.

"I certainly trust that through professional etiquette, let alone your promise to me, that this trick will not appear in your repertoire. I am writing this to you so that there'll be no controversy afterwards that I have not spoken and written to you about this affair."

Robinson answers Houdini in a letter dated June 17, 1914, writing that the accusations took him by surprise. Robinson counters by reminding Houdini of a conversation in which he told his friend he would be doing the trick, to which Houdini had no objections.

"But if you think you are going to bully me or intimidate me into not continuing to do it, then you have made a big mistake. I am not jealous of you neither do I fear you."

This exchange between the two magicians resonated with me. The themes of friendship, stealing secrets, jealousy and revenge became cornerstones of our novel.

I will sign off with one more discovery about Harry Houdini. He and his wife, Wilhelmina, share the same wedding anniversary date, June 22nd, as me and my husband, Michael. This is the text of what Houdini wrote to his wife on June 22, 1916:

To Wilhelmina,
Your love bestowed upon me is duly appreciated, though at times I may be apparently thoughtless, my mind is compelled to carry so many things, but my heart only one is you.
Your husband,
Harry Houdini

This was typed on his personal stationery with his likeness in the upper left corner. My take on this declaration of undying love? I think Harry was in a hurry and neglected to proofread. Perhaps he was dashing off to meet one of his purported lovers.